30 Years of Summer School Bovec: A Jubilee of Multilingualism

The Summer School Bovec, organised by the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt in cooperation with six universities from four countries, has good reason to celebrate: This cross-border education initiative centred in the Alps-Adriatic region was first held 30 years ago. The celebration bore the motto “Bovec as a future space” and partner universities, graduates and numerous guests of honour came together to mark the 30th anniversary.  

To celebrate the 30th anniversary, a special event was held at the Hotel Alp in Bovec on the 12th of July 2024, bringing together representatives of the partner universities, students, graduates, and lecturers as well as several guests of honour.

“The multilateral Summer School Bovec is an outstanding example of multilingualism in action. For 30 years, it has provided a space for intercultural encounters, for rapprochement through language acquisition, for cultivating the virtue of discussion and for debating current issues. As such, it is also an excellent peace project, a workshop for honing our understanding of democracy. I would like to thank each and every one of you who contributed your dedication and passion to make this project possible,” as Doris Hattenberger, Vice-Rector for Education at the University of Klagenfurt, stated in her address.

The celebration centred on “Bovec as a future space”. In her opening remarks, Cristina Beretta, Academic Director of the Summer School Bovec (SK Bovec), said: ” This celebration not only marks 30 years of fruitful cooperation between seven universities and the municipality of Bovec, but is also about looking to the future. Situated within the tri-border region, the Summer School, with its focus on multilingualism and cross-border encounters, has been working continuously since 1994 against – now re-emerging – narrow-minded, ethno-nationalist positions and towards fostering exchange across territorial, linguistic and mental borders. At the same time, as a space of the future, SK Bovec represents a true utopia in which open encounters with linguistic diversity and endeavours to achieve understanding form part of everyday life. At the Summer School Bovec, everyone is a ‘foreigner’, and so no one feels like a stranger here.”

The municipality of Bovec has hosted the Summer School for three decades now, a fact that makes Mayor Valter Mlekuž particularly proud. He thanked the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt for the longstanding cooperation. The municipality has supported the project from the very beginning and it is an asset to this area as well as playing an integral part in the summer and cultural educational activities in the Soča Valley.

The Summer School Bovec has been held in the town of Bovec for a fortnight at a time since 1994. Every year, around 35 students from universities located in more than four countries take part in the multilingual programme and learn the languages of neighbouring countries, local language minorities or even their own parents or grandparents. The concentration of five languages in one location and the sustained and successful cooperation between seven partner universities from Italy/Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Trieste, Udine), Slovenia (Ljubljana, Primorska/Koper), Croatia (Rijeka, Osijek) and Austria (Klagenfurt) are what make the Summer School unique.

Over the past 30 years, the Summer School Bovec has produced more than 1,000 graduates.Numerous friends and companions took part in the anniversary celebration and shared their personal experiences in a round table discussion. Graduates Federico Collaoni, Janoš Ježovnik, Ricarda Motschilnig and Maria Vittoria Previdi reported on their experiences, moderated by Tatjana Vučajnk and Silvia Biazzo.

The guests of honour also included Vladimir Wakounig, who served as academic director of the Summer School Bovec for many years, and former project manager Andrea Wernig, who was responsible for the organisation of SK Bovec from 1994 to 2022.

As a token of thanks, the guests of honour were presented with a gift made especially for the anniversary: “Trait d’union” – a work of art by the Italian artist Filippo Borella, which symbolises the idea of encounter and exchange across territorial, linguistic and mental borders in the form of seven colours of the partner universities. The representatives of the partner universities in attendance included: Giorgio Alberti (University of Udine, delegate of the Rector), Irena Samide (University of Ljubljana, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy), Domagoj Švegar (University of Rijeka, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy), Ivan Trojan (University of Osijek, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy) and David Bizjak (University of Primorska/Koper, academic coordinator of the SK Bovec). Special thanks also go to the University of Trieste, Barbara Milani and Rodolfo Taccani, who organised a one-day excursion to Trieste as part of the SK Bovec in July, offering the participants an insight into various ecological and economic aspects of sustainability. Pro-Rector Valter Sergo gave them a warm welcome at the University of Trieste.

In the course of the celebrations, the Austrian author Anna Baar, who received the Grand Austrian State Prize in 2022 and lived “as a child in two seemingly hermetic worlds” – Austria and Yugoslavia – gave a keynote speech on the topics of homeland, war and democracy: “Origin is nothing to be proud of, but also nothing to be embarrassed about. (…) At best, knowledge of our homeland can ensure mutual appreciation, forbearance and understanding. Nationalism, however, is our undoing. The ‘community spirit’ of the Summer School, this ‘commitment to public spirit and cosmopolitanism, a strong rebuttal to the new sense of alienation’ – we need all this perhaps more urgently today than ever before,” says Anna Baar.

The ceremony concluded with the presentation of the new logo in the five languages of the Summer School, presented by Katharina Grafenauer, Project Manager of the Summer School since 2022.

The musical accompaniment to the ceremony was provided by the quintet “Manjana”, who created an unforgettable atmosphere with their varied repertoire of jazz, ensemble music and vocal music.

The Summer School Bovec remains a flagship project that will continue to promote cross-border and transcultural understanding and cooperation in the future.